+-FFWD Opening Breakfast

Worldwide, the scramble is on for telco’s to vertically integrate by buying media companies. Look south of the border to AT&T and their intent to acquire Time Warner and Verizon/Yahoo. These great telco’s have just discovered what Bell has known for some time; synergies can create real value for partners through smart media thinking. Mark will showcase the wide-ranging benefits that Bell, Canada’s pre-eminent communications company, can bring to clients and will introduce a new proprietary tool that will deliver real-time, incredibly detailed and actionable insights’.

+-FFWD Opening Lunch

How To Be A Creative Led Company In A Data Led World

Data is disrupting all businesses.

Media and direct marketing are now data businesses.

Data-powered start-ups have challenged established companies in industries as diverse as skincare, transport and mattresses. And creative advertising is not above the water line in the tidal wave of data.

So how does company born from creativity thrive in world shaped by data?

The answer lies not in resisting the tide of data, but integrating it into the core business, using it for inspiration as well as optimization, and combining new, data-literate talents to make new, data-led work.

Tom Morton and Jess Greenwood will be sharing insights, models, and creative work, and war stories from R/GA’s transformation into a new kind of company – creatively driven, with data at the core.

+-Facebook Session

Forward-Looking Financial Services

With the shift to mobile redefining both the way people communicate and consume media, and what they expect of their banks, organizations in the financial services industry must rapidly adapt. Hear from Facebook’s Erin Elofson and Rick Malhotra, as they discuss the steps the Financial Services industry must take in order to embrace these new tools and shift towards providing forward-looking customer experiences and measurement strategies.

+-Morning Master Series

Customers – The Starting Point For Great Companies

The objective of the talk is to help FFWD attendees better understand the starting point for great companies. I will discuss the necessary elements for a company to innovate and maintain leadership in a category. What is clear is that certain companies stand out and on an on-going basis are able to innovate and maintain a leading position in their category due to the following four elements.

The first is having an external focus. A firm needs to be aware of what is going on in the world at large because sometimes things which seem quite remote to the company may have a massive impact as the future unfolds.

The second is to look beyond traditional areas of activity. Companies that can re-invent themselves are the companies that stand the test of time. The question is not what do you manufacture or provide, the question is what needs does your company serve.

Third, companies need to have a willingness to take risks. Failure is often the best path to learning and only companies that have learned a lot develop a long-term formula for success.

Finally, companies that are successful and start believing they have all the answers are those that are most at risk. The main value of success is that it provides the resources needed to reinvent and learn for the future.

SPEAKER:

David Soberman P.Eng, Canadian National Chair in Strategic Management and Professor of Marketing at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.

+-thinkTV Session

Swinging the Media Pendulum Back to Neutral: The Underestimation of TV, the Overselling of Digital, and the Way Forward in 2017

In this applied and entertaining presentation Professor Mark Ritson from the Melbourne Business School in Australia reviews the current messy debates around media allocation and explores the real story of advertising effectiveness in 2017.

+-CORUS Session

The Future of TV Advertising

Corus will provide a window into the international revolution in advanced advertising. In this forum Corus will look at the ad tech powering this revolution, share insights from international suppliers and peers on what’s working, and demonstrate how Corus is bringing that innovation to Canada.

+-TubeMogul Session

Challenges in Attribution and How to Gain Competitive Advantage

With the recent increase in options for digital attribution, the analytical buyer has a lot to be excited about. But no system is perfect, and users of these platforms should be mindful of the biases inherent in correlation-based measurement. Join Tom Riordan, Director of Special Operations at TubeMogul, to see examples of the specific ways in which these biases can negatively impact performance optimization decisions — and perhaps more importantly, learn how to arrive at a truth set to calibrate your larger system around.

+-TubeMogul Workshop

Test & Learn Strategies with TubeMogul Special Operations

The “Test Campaign” has become common vernacular for digital buyers…but how much are we really learning? TubeMogul’s Special Operations and Client Services experts will deconstruct the necessary toolkit for developing true learnings around the effectiveness of media spend — ranging from daily indicators of success to attitudinal indicators and sales lift — and then guide the group through exercises where they can apply these tools.

+-CMDC Session

CMDC MEDIA DIGEST LIVE: Unicorns, Startups and Giants

Digital tech innovation is all part of the next wave of high-growth, high value companies. Does this innovation just belong to the small and nimble? Hear wisdom from media, creative, marketing and start-up leaders on how technology, innovation and creativity collide to transform business’s today.

+-Ipsos Brand Influence study

Most Influential Brands

Who’s leading? Who’s following? And who is gaining, fast? Most importantly, where does your brand rank among the Most Influential Brands in Canada? Join us for the big reveal, and to learn the secret sauce of the Most Influential Brands in Canada… and the World!

Steve Levy, Chief Operating Officer, Ipsos Canada will reveal it all on January 31, 2017. Steve will be sharing results from the sixth annual Most Influential Brands study, including which brands are on top and which brands are on fire!

+-Green Lotus Workshop

Learn How to Manage an Effective SEO Strategy for Multiple Clients, Save Time and Produce Amazing Results!

SEO is a complicated and time-consuming process, especially when you have to manage multiple clients. Join us to learn the 5 steps to improve your site or clients’ ranking on various search engines, and how to streamline your SEO dashboard, communications and reporting.

Green Lotus SEO Tools is a Canadian award-winning platform that has a specific model for agencies, providing the most vital data from 18 APIs including Google Analytics, Moz, Majestic, and many more, under one roof!

WORKSHOP LEADER:

Bassem Ghali, Canadian Entrepreneur of the Year Award Winner & Founder of Green Lotus

+-Google Canada Session

Rising Consumer Expectations & POV 2017

Immediate. Relevant. Frictionless. That’s the experience consumers expect from companies today. As consumers become mobile first, companies must re-think every aspect of their business from a mobile perspective.

+-Next Generation Day

Next Generation Day is back for its 9th year. Students will get to experience ‘A Day in the Life’ at one of the agencies participating.

Students will begin the day at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, where they will have breakfast and listen to a panel of professionals from the advertising and marketing industry with various levels of experience. There is a Q & A period during which the students will have the opportunity to ask questions.

At noon, students will then leave for their assigned agency and upon arrival, will be given a guided tour of the office and Q&A session with key personnel. Students will be able to work with an interdisciplinary team of strategic and creative pros and some of their clients and get the opportunity to contribute ideas to an ongoing agency project.

SCHEDULE:
8:00am – Registration & breakfast
8:20am – Students are welcomed
8:30am – Panel discussion and open forum with industry professionals
11:30am – Agency reps take students to agency offices
12:00pm – Office tours and lunch at agencies
1:00pm – Brainstorm with internal teams on a current project
3:00pm – Q&A with a team of staff in various roles
4:00pm – Networking and social event for Next Generation Day attendees

+-Morning Master Series

Small Box Marketing

What does Canada have in common with stores in most downtown cities? They compete in a land of giants. Just as downtowns have been ravaged by the arrival of big box stores and ecommerce, Canadian firms are challenged to beat the economic advantages of global firms and e-commerce operations. Think of what we are seeing in advertising and marketing communications in an era of mergers and acquisitions and online freelancers.

In this session Ken talks about what small—medium size firms can do to survive against larger, often global firms…and what larger firms are doing and could do to reduce their vulnerability to those efforts

+-DMAC Workshop

How To Create a CRTC CASL Compliance Program

In this workshop, Derek Lackey, President of the Direct Marketing Association of Canada will lead you through the process of creating a CASL compliant program for your organization. This program includes the 5 Stages of CASL Compliance. Address these 5 stages properly and you will have a comprehensive CASL compliant process within your organization. You may already have covered off some of the stages, but with full enforcement starting July 1, 2017, let’s be sure you have all 5 stages covered.

+-NLogic Session

Right-Term Data

Right-term data; or what Trump and Brexit can teach you about using data correctly. 2016 saw some vivid examples of how misunderstanding data can lead to nasty surprises. After a sold-out presentation last year, join David Phillips President & COO of NLogic as he explains how to identify the right-term data for your business, and how to avoid nasty surprises along the way.

Unlocking Broadcast Data

Frustrated with a lack of visibility into your broadcast activity? Wish you had a more timely view of how your campaign is positioned against your competitors and where you stand on share of voice?

We will present findings from research we conducted over the past 12 months along with a new set of dashboards created specifically to provide you with better visibility into your campaigns, and we would love your feedback on how we can make them better.

Join us for this 45 minute session and we’ll provide all participants with a 14-day free-trial of our Brand Monitor dashboard with TV spot data from 2009 to present.

+-140 Proof Session

Perhaps one of the biggest fads of 2016 was Pokémon GO. This mobile gaming app that launched in mid-2016 had overwhelming success, and, although it was short lived, it taught us an important lesson about a new age of mobile application marketing.

Users employed location based services and the camera function of their smartphones to connect with their surroundings, other users and the game itself. So, while this particular example didn’t employ in-app advertising, businesses participated by sponsoring locations as a way to attract more people to their premises.

For marketers, today’s mobile applications represent unparalleled opportunities because of the candid audiences they reach and the engagement level they earn with users. They conveniently package loads of highly relevant data, including social, interest-based, location, and more for marketers to utilize in their quest to create a stronger bond with customers.

Join Chris Griffith, Managing Director of 140 Proof in Canada, in this session to discuss the opportunities in today’s mobile application market and the golden rule for successful digital marketing in 2017.

+-Twitter Session

Moving at the Speed of Millennials

As a generation of influencers, Millennials mean an awful lot to your bottom line. Plenty of things excite them and they’re not shy about sharing. They know if something’s lit (or not). They’ve got a firm grasp on expectation vs reality. They get what “Retweet to save a life” means, and they love when something gives them #allthefeels.

Engaging Millennials with your brand has to happen quickly – otherwise they’ve moved on to something else before you can say “buckle up”. The key is to bring them closer to the culture that matters most to them, and to get them there as fast as possible.

Join this session for brand new research insights on Canadian Millennials on Twitter and how you can get the tribe on board with your brand. Our panel members will be sharing how they have been able to successfully reach and engage with Millennials, leaving you with best practices and tips for how you can shake up your marketing plans in 2017.

+-Postmedia Session

Disruption to Exploration: What do “Innovation Hubs” mean for the future of marketing, advertising and media?

When organizations focus too much on protecting themselves from the competitors they know, it’s even more surprising when they lose to the innovators they didn’t see. The truth is, disruption feeds innovation and opens the door to new possibilities—and businesses are taking note!

“Innovation Hubs” are popping up all over—creating new business opportunities, providing new perspectives, reinventing companies, and provoking change through disruption. Many industries are even adopting innovation as a fundamental business practice by proactively sourcing ideas from external service providers who are free from the constraints of tradition.

Join the leaders of the Kitchener/Waterloo-based “Communitech” hub for an exciting panel discussion about the future of business innovation and “Innovation Hubs.”

+-Amazon Session

The Imminent Ecommerce Boom and What it Means for Marketers

Analysts project that the majority of total retail growth in Canada through 2020 will come from ecommerce. As consumers rapidly change how they discover, evaluate and purchase products, the traditional ways that marketers engage with their customers offline will not often organically lead to success online. In fact, ecommerce has proven to be a disruptive environment where challenger brands can establish category leadership relatively quickly.

This session will examine how the rapidly evolving retail landscape in Canada impacts consumer preferences and shopping behaviours, while also outlining a playbook for how marketers can win and drive growth via ecommerce.

+-Yahoo Breakfast

Canada: The state of the app nation

Flurry Analytics has tracked mobile app usage for the past eight years and has seen nothing but growth. Stunningly, that growth is lead by existing users. Users are increasingly becoming mobile addicts. From time spent to number of sessions, consumers are engaged on their mobile devices. Join Yahoo for this informative breakfast session exploring mobile app insights and the different app categories to better understand how and where consumers are engaging.

+-Morning Master Series

Emotion Hacking the Consumer Mind

Advances in behavioural science are changing the way we think about connecting with consumers. This session explores the emotional architecture of the consumer mind and its implications for marketers looking to improve engagement. With examples from recent lab and field studies, Dr. Murray will illustrate and explain the ways in which consumers’ affective states impact the choices that they make. Emerging evidence suggests a new perspective on marketing in a world of intense competition for consumer attention and loyalty.

SPEAKER:

Kyle Murray, Professor of Marketing and the Director of the School of Retailing at the Alberta School of Business.

+-Rogers Media Session

Sportsnet Thought Leadership Session: The Power Of Live Sports

In an evolving content consumption world, audiences are being pulled in every direction with each existing and emerging platform competing for their attention. The ultimate decision becomes less about the screen they choose, but the content they want – how they want it and when they want it. Content wins, always.

But as a marketer or content creator in this era of endless choice, if you’ve ever doubted just how valuable sport is and the power of live content, remember this:

Live sport content is dominating the TV landscape, with 96% of total content watched live. 40% of the Top 50 airings in 2016 were live sport events. TV tuning as a whole has been declining the last 5 years, but SPORT AUDIENCES ARE GROWING – and not just on television, but across all platforms!

Sportsnet reaches more than 20M Canadian sports fans, bringing the best in sports entertainment to audiences on every platform and device.

Join Tara Slone, co-host of Rogers Hometown Hockey and Sportsnet broadcaster, as she leads a compelling discussion on just how significant investing in live sports is and how companies are leveraging sport audiences to create top-of-class branded experiences.

+-Addictive Mobility Session

Why people hate advertising, and how ad tech and media agencies can help

Ad Blocking apps are used by 40% of Millennials. Anti-advertising groups are getting support from charitable donors. Traditional channels are losing viewership in favor of channels with fewer ad interruptions.
Why has a well-known form of subsidizing content suddenly become so dysfunctional?
Why do people hate advertising?

+-SapientRazorfish Session

Digitally Disrupted Commerce

Commerce is the 8000 year old industry that makes the world go round. Yet, it hasn’t changed all that much in those 8000 years. In fact, we are just now living through the 7th great disruption in the entire history of commerce. For those of living through this “digital disruption” it’s a challenging time, presenting great opportunities as well as new obstacles.

Join SapientRazorfish resident “Retailgeek”, Jason Goldberg, as he explores the real impact of digital on the commerce industry. How shifting shopper expectations and disruptive digital competitors are driving a transformation in the entire industry. Key topics addressed will include changes to the underlying psychology of the digital shopper, the changing role of physical stores, and the key roles that social proof, trust, transparency, and absolute value play in marketing to those consumers.

+-Bell Media Session

Video advertising effectiveness and the subconscious mind, presented by Brainsights and Bell Media

Marketers and researchers have long used a number of metrics to quantify the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. These metrics tell us whether a campaign worked or didn’t work, but they often fall short of telling us why. Understanding the “why” is crucial for marketers and is the difference between diagnosing breakdowns in communication plans and being able to treat and prevent them.

Bell Media and Brainsights have partnered to examine how consumers respond, on a subconscious level, to video advertising across multiples screens, in different environments and with a variety of content across genres. Are the stimuli capturing my attention? Is there a deeper relationship with the stimuli? Are the stimuli being committed to memory? These are key questions for all brands looking to boost awareness, engage and connect with consumers and prompt a call to action. Using portable EEG technology to measure the subconscious and unconscious brain, we can develop a greater understanding the consumer mind and decision making.

We will demonstrate the technology and take you through the methodology before sharing some insights that will empower you to maximize the effectiveness of your campaign. You will learn how to optimize your message for various screens; you will understand the impact of mental posturing and how consumers behave when consuming video content in different environments; and you will see the impact of creating synergy between your commercial message and the content in which it appears. All of this will equip you with the predictive skills and the knowledge to plan and execute effective campaigns across various video platforms.

SPEAKERS:

Dan Iwasa-Madge, Co-founder, Head of Product and Analysis, Brainsights

+-Sharethrough Session

The Convergence of Programmatic and Native

Sharethrough, the leading Native Advertising Supply Side Platform, will host an hour long session of panels and presentations to discuss key updates in programmatic native and what to expect from the year ahead.

+-Strata Insights & Fresh Squeezed Ideas Session

Stuck between 2 CFOs—How to Get Out

How-to defend and protect your marketing and brand budgets in a world obsessed with ROI and metrics. Learn how predictive evidenced-based strategies will deliver harder working creative and how the application of Brand Economics provides quantitative proof brand investment will improve financial performance.

Photobooth Partner:

+-Morning Master Series

The Personification of Brands: Pitfalls and Best Practices

An increasing trend in brand building is using people and characters to make emotional connections between people and brands. Whether it be the use of celebrities or fictional characters, the personification of brands can be a powerful tool, but can also go horribly wrong (think: Tiger Woods).

This session will explain the psychology that makes personification powerful and presents examples of successful and unsuccessful campaigns to illustrate best practices and pitfalls of personification. The session ties into this year’s theme on consumer-centricity and is intended for agency and client-side professionals who are curious about the use of people and characters to build brands.

+-BAV Consulting Session

The Power of Brand Canada as a Marketing Tool

Canada debuted as the #2 country in the world in the inaugural “Best Countries” Rankings (the largest and most comprehensive country ranking, and a partnership between BAV Consulting, US News & World Report and the Wharton School). According to millennials, it was the #1 Nation Brand globally. Canada’s reputation for innovation, global citizenship, quality and trust is a powerful badge of honor globally, and “Brand Canada” is a true ambassador for its companies abroad.

As we celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday, we’ll explore Canada’s standing in the Best Countries rankings and delve into what Canada’s brand power means not just for the Canadian government – but also for Canadian brands and marketers. We’ll help Canadian marketers understand what “Brand Canada” stands for, its strengths and opportunities, and how to translate that into more global, impactful and engaging conversations.

+-BBM Session

Addicted to Mobile Messaging: Why consumers increasingly turn to mobile messaging and Chat Apps for communication, content and commerce – and what brands should be doing about it.

In 2015, usage of messaging apps such as Whatsapp, BBM, Snapchat and WeChat outstripped that of traditional social apps like Facebook and Twitter. Sending messages via a mobile device has always been at the core of the mobile phone experience with users spending approximately 60% of their time engaging in this medium – with the remaining 40% divided between content (social and otherwise), commerce and gaming. Yet for a long time, these apps posed a huge challenge to marketers. How do brands engage with users in this environment without intruding upon private moments?

Adam Pattison, VP of the BBM Americas and EMEA business, explores how messaging apps are meeting the above challenge by evolving into complete ecosystems, aligning the core social chat application with the additional content, gaming and commerce experience users crave.

+-Mintel Session

Mintel’s 2017 North American Consumer Trends

Join Mintel’s global trends expert for a look ahead at 2017 and four key consumer trends set to impact the Canadian and US markets.

This session will be packed full of exclusive Canadian and US consumer data from Mintel and backed by real-world examples. This presentation will provide insights on how today’s consumer thinks, feels and acts, while analyzing key changes across culture, society, brands and markets to give you an in depth understanding of what these trends mean for the year ahead.

Mintel’s four trends set to impact the North American consumer market are:
• Echo Chamber of Secrets
• Reality 2.0
• Be the Change
• Life in Sync

+-FFWD Closing Lunch - SOLD OUT

No Bullshit – SOLD OUT

Why some of the best advertising takes this as a mantra, and why consumers are demanding communications that ditch pretense and get real.

Join us for what is sure to be a riveting and insightful conversation between creative industry legend, Mark Tutssel and Susan Krashinsky of the Globe and Mail. Leave inspired and driven for the rest of the year.

+-Cannes Reel

The Globe and Mail presents a screening of the Best of Cannes 2016 Commercials reel. Don’t miss this year’s highlight reel that captures the best and most interesting award-winning work from the 63rd Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.